Jim Lazar

Senior Advisor

Based in Olympia, WA, Jim Lazar has maintained a consulting practice in electric and natural gas utility ratemaking and resource planning since 1982. His clients have included municipal and cooperative electric utilities, natural gas utilities, regulatory commissions, state consumer advocates, and public interest organizations in the United States and Canada. Mr. Lazar is the principal author of handbooks and articles on rate design, renewable energy integration, consumer participation in electric utility planning, integrated resource planning, and incentive regulation. He has assisted RAP since 1998, working on projects in the U.S., Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, Poland, Hungary, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Samoa.

Jim is a founding board member (1981) of the NW Energy Coalition, with 33 years of service to date. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Public Counsel Section of the Washington attorney general for 25 years of service assisting the state’s consumer advocate.

Mr. Lazar holds a bachelor’s in economics from Western Washington University, and completed graduate studies at that institution and the University of Washington.

Featured News and Events

Grid operators have historically forecast demand and scheduled generation to meet that demand. But new technologies allow us to use flexible renewable resources and flexible load to ensure that demand and supply stay in balance. The flexibility that these technologies provide allows for a lower-cost and lower-emission power sector. It also enables the cost-effective integration...

Space heating is an important opportunity for beneficial electrification—but the types of opportunities vary significantly by region, building type, and policy landscape. RAP’s November 2018 paper on this topic analyzes these opportunities, and it offers guidance on how regulators can evaluate and implement policies and programs to electrify space heating. In a webinar on November...